Study of the Technology of Using Complex Lithium-Сobalt Current Sources Using Combined Processes of Mechanical Processing, Leaching and Extraction

Abstract

It is shown that the disposal of spent complex chemical power sources (CPS) leads to severe environmental pollution. An environmentally safe technology for their disposal has been developed, including the stages of mechanical processing, leaching and extraction. The article discusses the combined processes of processing spent CPS with the use of mechanochemical destruction. The work of opening the CPS on a shredder in an argon atmosphere, knife and ball mills is analyzed. The grinding of model media with different morphology in a drum mill and a toroidal vibrating mill (TVM) was studied, and the operating parameters of the drum mill in a waterfall mode were determined. A narrowing of the granulometric composition from a particle diameter of 2–3 mm to a diameter of 10–40 microns was revealed. It is shown that when CPS particles are ground in a ball mill at a ratio of balls and ground phase of 5:1, the content of cobalt in the powder increases to 19.0 wt %. The time for the complete cycle of CPS processing, including the stages of opening in an argon atmosphere, grinding, grinding, leaching and extraction, was established to be 7 hours.